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Google plans to kill chat app Allo by the middle of next year, the company said in a blog post, confirming a report earlier on Wednesday about the product’s imminent demise. Despite owning the world’s dominant smartphone operating system in Android, Google has never been able to create a chat experience to rival Apple’s iMessage or Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Google will focus fully on the development of Messages, its other chat app for Android phones. That initiative was the b

Google plans to kill chat app Allo by the middle of next year, the company said in a blog post, confirming a report earlier on Wednesday about the product’s imminent demise. Despite owning the world’s dominant smartphone operating system in Android, Google has never been able to create a chat experience to rival Apple’s iMessage or Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Google will focus fully on the development of Messages, its other chat app for Android phones. That initiative was the bGoogle shutting down Allo Cached Page below :Company: cnbc, Activity: cnbc, Date: 2018-12-06 Authors: jillian donfro, stephen lamKeywords: news, cnbc, companies, social, yeargoogle, google, products, earlier, android, allo, apps, users, chat, shutting, work

Google plans to kill chat app Allo by the middle of next year, the company said in a blog post, confirming a report earlier on Wednesday about the product’s imminent demise.

Despite owning the world’s dominant smartphone operating system in Android, Google has never been able to create a chat experience to rival Apple’s iMessage or Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp.

Allo, which launched two years ago to much fanfare, will only work until March 2019, at which point users will have to download any conversations they want to save. Meanwhile, Google will focus fully on the development of Messages, its other chat app for Android phones. Earlier this year, Google announced that it was working with mobile carriers on a new Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard, an upgrade to classic SMS texting, to make messaging work better across Android devices, and bring users features like read receipts and seamless group chats.

That initiative was the beginning of the end for Allo, which saw its product lead defect to Facebook earlier this year.

Google also said in its blog post that it plans to support another one of its chat apps, Hangouts, until it makes two of its enterprise apps, Hangouts Chat and Meet, available for non-paying users.

A Google employee tweeted earlier on Thursday that Meet and Chat would launch for regular consumers next year:

Google has long had a complicated, messy strategy when it comes to chat apps, and has axed a laundry list of communication products, including the original GChat, the social network Buzz, and the collaboration tool Wave. Earlier this year, it announced it was shutting down its social network Google Plus after it discovered a security bug that left private profile data exposed.

Google announced Wednesday that its voice assistant, better known simply as Google Assistant, will be coming to appliances this year. Google said washers, dryers and vacuums will soon gain voice controls. The idea of controlling appliances with a voice assistant isn’t new, but it’s starting to become more popular. Amazon partnered with LG to bring its Alexa assistant to a new LG refrigerator earlier this year, for example. Google said it will discuss specific Google Assistant-enabled products ov

Google announced Wednesday that its voice assistant, better known simply as Google Assistant, will be coming to appliances this year.

Google said washers, dryers and vacuums will soon gain voice controls. Need to run the dishwasher? A command like “OK Google wash the dishes” might start your washing machine. Google says it’s partnering with companies such as LG to build the new products.

The idea of controlling appliances with a voice assistant isn’t new, but it’s starting to become more popular. Amazon partnered with LG to bring its Alexa assistant to a new LG refrigerator earlier this year, for example. Alexa can already control other appliances, including robotic vacuums.

Google also announced on Wednesday that its voice assistant is coming to new speakers built by Panasonic, Mobvoi and Anker, which means they might serve as additional options for folks who don’t yet own a Google Home device.

Google said it will discuss specific Google Assistant-enabled products over the coming days.